Tag Archives: fairytales

Goosey Goosey Gander - my latest animal obsession

by

The shape and attitude of geese appeals to me. They seem very feisty and make good guard dogs and I love their plump and curvaceous lines plus the pure white feathers. They smack of the magical and the fairytale which is right up my street.My first original goose gouache. 7x10 inches on hot pressed high white paper 140lbs by Saunders Waterford - unstretched

My first original goose gouache. 7×10 inches on hot pressed high white paper 140lbs by Saunders Waterford - unstretched
This is my reference photo

This is my reference photo

So I bought my very own gaggle. Not literally but pictorially. I found some fab goose images on istock and snapped them up to play with and experiment with in gouache and pencil.I am going to name the geese - that should be fun as I wouldn’t know a male from a female if one bit me on the bum. Anyone know the difference? I looked on line and it seems it is very hard to tell apart from that the males tend to be a bit bigger.

geese headsSo I cropped their heads off to make a good focus study page from which to draw detailed head portraits and I will keep adding images as I do them.hot goose

This first one is a bit mad as I was excited about using pure magenta against a white head and love the effect. These are experiments for me to get to know what colours do it for me and how the face is structured.

Once again - as I painted I kept having to go back in again and again to darken the shadows - never quite getting it dark enough to be believable - I hope it looks real to you now?

Here are my 11 images - aren’t they great!

My 11 goose images on the living room floor - do you have a fave?

My 11 goose images on the living room floor - do you have a fave?

Unexpected Visitors - fairytale drawings

by

Inspired by a very old and wide knarled tree with a door that I photographed back in the summer this drawing has geese coming around to visit their friend who lives in the tree.11x8 inch drawing of an old tree with geese

11×8 inch drawing of an old tree with geese

Trouble is, she wasn’t expecting them and has nothing in to give them - hence the slightly perplexed look on her face.geese and tree copyI enjoyed using soft pencil shading to form the knarled door surround and other parts of the tree.geese and tree copy bHere is a photo of the actual tree and door - isn’t it fab? It is at Hampton Court Castle and Gardens in Hereford and I went there last year with my friend Anne for a day out. As I photographed it then I envisaged it becoming part of a drawing but of what I didn’t know.P1130251I love fairytales and the idea of animals living in trees (which they do but not always with front doors and brass door knobs). A great book about the use of fairytales in cultures is The Uses of Enchantment by Bruno Bettleheim.

This may become a watercolour. There are parts of the drawing where I feel it is a bit ragged such as the background geese and I had to try and judge the scale of them as I drew as I was working from all different sizes of geese from my photos.

Here are the geese I used which again I took photos of over 2 years ago not knowing what they would be used for. I just loved their shapes and forms at the time.P1120239P1120238With this drawing I loved being able to ad lib bits like adding this whimsical window which wasn’t in the actual tree.geese and tree copy windo

Art Demo - Watercolour Fly Agaric Mushrooms

by

Now I am really hooked - been drawing more mushrooms this morning and painting their fragile, pulpy yet paper fibrous stalks - love them - so tactile and cute.
I love their random nobbliness and charm - carefree and child-like.
P1120754
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Here’s how I did them.
P1120724
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Paper is Arches Hot Pressed 90lbs. Unstretched as you can see.
I just paint on the paper and flatten it later.
P1120752
P1120739
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Paints Alizarin Crimson, Cadmium Scarlet, Chrome Orange, Cadmium Yellow, French Ultramarine, Sap Green, Cerulean Blue. Brushes No. 3 round.
P1120740
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
1. I drew the mushrooms roughly in pencil 3B
2. I wet the entire surface (apart from some teeny dry specks which will be the white bits later) of some heads of mushrooms and added Alizarin Crimson/Cadmium Red here and there and let it run. I added a deeper mix of this colour on shadow sides of heads to start creating form. The shadow sides I have created are all on the left of the mushrooms.
P1120748
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I drew another single mushroom as a more detailed study and here you can see the wetness of the head ready to be charged with red paint.
P1120743
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Let the medium do it !
P1120747
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
OK - back to out happy grouping…
P1120749
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Now I darken areas of the heads with a deeper red mix.
I also felt the painting was looking overall too cool and not appealing so I added a splash of Cadmium Yellow and Chrome Orange to the Left hand side of some of the mushroom heads and stalks to bring in some sunshine:)
P1120750
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Add some sap green to darken the red off.
P1120751
Then I wet the entire stalks and added a thin line of grey made from French Ultramarine and Sap Green along the Right hand side and let it run into the wet part.
This creates a curved illusion on the stalks.
 
 
So this is where I am going to stop now as I need a cup of tea and the Jack Russells are getting restless!
Back to continue soon. I hope you found this interesting /useful? Any comments pop them below:)
Alison
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 

Away with the Fairies

by

There is something very attractive about Fly Agaric mushrooms to me. Perhaps it is their association with fairy-tales and magic that appeals to my inner child.

I suddenly had the urge to paint one a few days ago and so I scoured the internet for images and began sketching my own impression.

I did a single one first so that I could study its form very intensely but already my impatient mind is galloping ahead - imagining misty scenes of the tangled roots of great oaks smothered in swathes of the infamous red and white topped fungi with perhaps a grumpy old toad sitting on one here and there!

Frog prince 2

I used Arches Hot pressed 90lb paper and painted it dry on dry except for the background which I did wet into wet to add some runs and mystery.

 

More coming up - watch this space.